Cue the over-dramatic music to accompany the upcoming over-dramatic sentence: Here are 5 reasons why MIDI controllers could be exactly what you've been searching for your entire lifetime...
1. Speed up musical note input
Still typing in your notes like a sucker? Still clicking in every kick and clap? A MIDI keyboard or Pad-based input device could be exactly what you've been looking for.
Even if you aren't amazing on the keys or a pro on the pads, taking the time to watch a few free tutorials to get yourself up to a reasonable standard could pay itself back in kind over the rest of your lifetime in the amount of time saved putting in melodies and beats. You don't have to be a maestro - that's what "quantizing" is for! It puts all your midi inputted data in perfect time with the music.
2. More natural sounding instruments
Do you find your pianos end up too plinky-plonky, like an over-enthusiastic pre-schooler keyed them in? Rediscover the beauty of manual velocity control - if you play your notes in, you'll get a more human, natural sound since the velocities of each note will vary minutely.
This, combined with tiny variations in note triggering times, can sometimes be a positive thing when you're trying to make music that doesn't sound like it was made on an electronic device!
3. Improve your skills for live performance
If you push yourself to play in the more difficult phrases in your music, you can transpose those skills to the stage! More and more DJs are finding themselves dissatisfied with simply triggering their tracks - MIDI devices are the way to go to bring some talent back into the live music arena where electronic music is concerned!
Just think - would you rather watch your favourite artist stand in front of some spinning decks or see them play aspects of their tunes live?
4. Manipulate other parameters
Not only can you get control of the notes, but things like filter sweeps, envelope manipulation and wobble control become so much easier when you have some knobs to tweak!
Your sounds are infinitely more malleable when you have a hands on approach, and after some simple routing you can make your warm synth pads evolve over time, your lead synths modulate in or your basses wobble at different rates, all at the touch of a button, turn of a knob or twist of a dial.
5. Speed up your workflow
It's not just the note input it speeds up. Mixing with a MIDI controller could save you hours of time as you dont have to keep switching focus between the virtual mixer and the sequencer to adjust your levels. You can be applying an effect and EQing an audio track at the same time.
So if you're serious about music production, it's vital to make sure you are getting your ideas down as fast as possible so you can maintain that glorious creative flow. It's so hard to keep that up when you're too busy worrying about your virtual interface to think about that perfect rhythm or change those synth parameters just right. So streamline yourself - investing in MIDI controllers might be the best decision you made since deciding to make computer-based music in the first place.
